Abstract
This paper deals with the meaning of individualism and holistic protest, which are considered to be the very basis of the new mystic groups. The yearning for independence and the care of the self - the two features defining individualism - are balanced by a deep demand of“religare”. The care of the self can be viewed as a form of narcissim; but it also expresses a refusal by man to be depersonalized or torn into “parts” by the modern scientific and technical approaches of man. In this way such care is close to humanism. Between these two tendencies there is a tension that allows many possible solutions as well as easy fluctuations. The same is true of the tension between the yearning for independence and the yearning for “interdependence”. In opposition to the theories of individualism that identify independence and autonomy, the author defines the latter as a “freedom in action”, which implies a participation in the elaboration of collective laws more than it does a prospect of breaking free from authority. Through their search for answers to the dilemma of the positivist conceptions of autonomy, the new mystic groups express their aim for autonomy. But in fact this aim itself is impeded by the weight of conformism and credulity.